#those you’ve known……

[reachingfortheday]

my heart 💜

[areyouscaredyet]

this isn’t ready to breach containment yet I don’t think

[jgroffdaily]

Excerpts from an interview with Jonathan and Maria Friedman at the Los Angeles Times by Charles McNulty, with photos by Justin Jun Lee:

Hopefulness and regret are calibrated to perfection in a revival that ought to be filmed before it closes July 7. I’ve seen the New York production twice, and the psychology only deepens on subsequent viewing.

The key to making this work — which is to say making us care — is the performance of Groff, who humanizes Frank’s choices without sentimentalizing his arc. Frank can come off as a narcissist, a guy who can’t resist whatever shiny object happens to be in front of him. But Groff, who received Tony nominations for his performances in “Spring Awakening” and “Hamilton” and deserves to win for his beautifully layered work in “Merrily,” reveals what Mary and Charley see in him and don’t want to give up on: an answer to their dreams of fulfillment — romantic in Mary’s case, artistic in Charley’s.

Groff was fresh from filming HBO’s “Spring Awakening: Those You’ve Known,” a reunion concert with the show’s original cast and creative team, when casting director Jim Carnahan asked him about his interest in “Merrily.” He immediately watched the London production on YouTube and was struck by an image from the opening number that matched something he had just re-created for the “Spring Awakening” doc.

“Frank walks out with a red folder, and Mary and Charley come out and stand in the exact positions that John Gallagher Jr. and Lea Michele stood in at the end of ‘Spring Awakening,’ with the girl over the left shoulder, the guy over the right,” he said, speaking from his dressing room at the Hudson Theatre. “That is the final bit of ‘Spring Awakening’ and I was like, ‘Oh, that’s so weird. I just lived that.’”

But it was one of Frank’s lines that really clinched the deal for Groff: “I’ve made only one mistake in my life. But I made it over and over and over. That was saying ‘yes’ when I meant ‘no.’” “When I heard that,” Groff said, “I went, ‘Oh, my God. I have to play this. I have done that. I’m just learning how to not do that. Yeah, I get him.’”

“I cast Jonathan for many reasons,” Friedman said. “One, because he’s absolutely brilliant. But I cast a big heart, a beating heart.”

“The amusement and bafflement of having a go at life and everyone wanting a piece of you — that is the place that Jonathan works from,” Friedman said. “Everyone wants a piece of Frank. That’s what happens with brilliant people. Jonathan is not just brilliant and beautiful but also one of the kindest men. And kindness is central to this production.”

Groff, who was exceptional in the short-lived HBO series “Looking” about a group of young gay men living in San Francisco, said that, from “a queer perspective,” he could identify with the way Frank represses parts of himself to please others.

“Growing up closeted, I became an expert at dodging questions and shining a light on other people,” he said. “This can create a relationship dynamic where you’re in a constant state of service to others — like the perfect son who’s hiding something. That stereotype feels connected to the way Frank supports everybody’s dreams, talents, neuroses and needs. He’s able to do it because he’s full of passion and genuine love for those people.”

So how exactly did Friedman, Groff & Co. finally solve the riddle of “Merrily”? By approaching it the way they might a play by Shakespeare or Chekhov, sifting through the lyrics as though they were lines in “Hamlet” and digging into the psychology of the characters as though mining subtext in “Uncle Vanya.”

This revival, fittingly, has been a team effort. And the ensemble’s collaborative joy only reinforces our sense that, however much Frank, Charley and Mary may bitterly disappoint one another, their bond will always be the best thing that ever happened to them.

[ghost-bxrd]

I'm a fan of dickjay, myself. Something about meeting someone after you've already met them, and you are both different people now gets me

Ah yes! Throw in a sprinkle of “Why did you get to live?!” along with an “I’m sorry it wasn’t me” and you’ve got immaculate angst and bittersweet potential for comfort 🥺

[oatmite]

you’re in their dms but they’ll walk on my arm through the distant night and i won’t let them stray from my heart through the wind through the dark through the winter light i will read all their dreams to the stars

[titsthedamnseason]

everyone lied to me about the bergman brothers these books are kind of bad

[aaaaaa-musical-trash]

i mean, those you’ve known is good but pls steven sater WHAT is the bruise of love

[quietwingsinthesky]

not to think seriously about the samelia arc but idk something interesting there through the lens of aromantic dean coming back and just. not getting it.

One of the first things he asks Sam about what happened while he was gone is “was there a girl?” and when told there was, he’s very upset by that. There was a girl, and in Dean’s mind, Sam chose her over Dean. And wants to continue choosing her! Wants to go back to her, says as much about wanting to go back to that life and almost does after the text message debacle!

And looking at this from Dean’s POV, Dean who tried to have that same kind of Normal Heterosexual Romance Life with lisa, and who it didn’t work for. could never quite make himself fit into place, couldn’t give her things he wasn’t even aware he couldn’t feel. who, as soon as he knew Sam was alive, made it a priority to stick close to his brother even at the expense of that relationship with Lisa. Like. Of course Dean doesn’t get what Sam wants with Amelia. He tried it! He lived it! For him, it felt wrong!

His life with Sam, for all that it’s a fucked up one, is more fulfilling to him than “being in love” with Lisa, and so even beyond the fact that he’s always going to need to choose Sam because that’s been his job since he was a kid, he’s always going to want to choose Sam.

and the idea that there’s some hierarchy of relationships for Sam where Dean isn’t the one he wants to spend his life with? That’s terrifying and confusing to him (if completely untrue, since Sam also proves time and time again that in the end he’ll always choose Dean.) Dean’s got no idea what being aromantic actually is, he’s Dean. Meaning to him, what he had with Lisa is either what everyone gets out of a romantic relationship or he’s broken in ways other people aren’t, depending on how much he hates himself that day. Neither of which are true, but you can see how, with that assumption, the idea that Sam wants to leave this life with him for a woman he met less than a year ago is kind of hard for him to process.

[slav-every-day]

[sapphic-squid]

I’ve kinda become a group with my girlfriend and her best friend and said best friend’s boyfriend and maybe it’s just the high of people liking me but I think I could get used to this

[tariah23]

https://x.com/megansstats/status/1751747785647337777?s=46&t=QiKHdDdvKoMxWGyakqTvxA

Of course I saw this!!! Megan’s got angels watching over her ❤️. The fact that all that came out simply because barbz photoshopped her nose to look bigger than what it actually is in order to say that she had work done is so weird, but very typical of them. But they’ve always been a pretty disgusting fanbase. I’ve even had issues with them before and I don’t argue with ANYONE online 😭… they’re like hit dogs who move in as soon as they smell blood. All this for a woman married to a registered offender 🚬.

https://x.com/quinveer/status/1751721132745470056?s=46&t=cKo2jnMIiVKeu8vnu79EyQ

[jgroffdaily]

From an Instagram post by Steven Sater: it has been one year since the premiere of the Spring Awakening documentary. Steven also posted a TikTok video and left the comment below.

[crowley1990]

That documentary was just like over an hour of Jonathan Groff crying

[dykebluejay]

i’m not gonna lie if you haven’t listened to carnival of the animals with context for all the little musical jokes in there you’re missing out frfr

[daincrediblegg]

Something something if I had a nickel for every time I found out a beloved actor from the terror was also in a beloved film from my childhood in a shocking and alarmingly sudden manner I’d have two nickels… but it is REALLY FUCKING DISTURBING that it has happened twice